Ivy's Twisted Vine Redux Read online

  “Why do we always have to ruin things?” Ivy crossed her arms and stood bewildered. How had the situation escaladed so quickly?

  “We ruin things? Since when have we been the problem?” Grey sighed. He didn’t mean to let his frustration slip out. He was sure that there would be other times, but he was extremely agitated just the same.

  “Look, I’m gonna go on and head out of here. Okay. You’ve got class in less than an hour, and I’ve got a hundred things to do before I get back to the office. Let’s not do this before the start of a perfectly long day.” He looked down at his watch. “I’ll call you tonight.” Kissing Ivy on her forehead, he turned on his heels and headed out of the door, leaving her speechless.

  *

  Dr. Peterson was a stickler for tardiness even in the unheard of September snow that was falling heavily under the dismal silver skies. Less than one hour after Grey left, barely missing the classroom door close and saving herself the embarrassment of interrupting Dr. Peterson’s lecture, Ivy sat down beside her best friend, Trina, to begin yet another boring lecture about business ethics.

  “Did you type up your essay last night?” Trina whispered to Ivy as Dr. Peterson closed the door.

  “Yeah, did you?” Ivy asked, pulling her work from her brown leather satchel and placing it confidently on her desk.

  “I forgot.” Trina said, taking Ivy’s essay and sliding it under her desk. “Don’t remind him. He may have forgotten, too.”

  “Good morning, class. Please take out your essays,” Dr. Peterson said, smiling at Trina. “I hope that you all remembered that this counts as twenty percent of your final semester grade.”

  “I hate him,” Trina said under her breath as she smiled back at Dr. Peterson.

  *

  Class passed quickly and within an hour Ivy and Trina found themselves at their favorite eatery Abundant Creations Bistro in the Cooper-Young district having a light lunch and warm lemon tea cozy corner restaurant watching the busy mid-town traffic pass by in the window. It was a once a week trip they made to relax at and enjoy the afternoon away from the campus.

  “You’re gonna fail,” Ivy said disapprovingly to Trina, who only lifted her eyebrow in response.

  “Quit being so damned dramatic. I ain’t gonna fail; I just won’t graduate with a thousand honors. Everyone can’t be a 4.0 student, you know.” Trina teased.

  “I just know that you’re better than average,” Ivy said, ignoring Trina and the second accusation of the day that she was a drama queen.

  “Yes, mother. What’s bothering you today?”

  “Grey,” Ivy said, looking down at the green-checkered tablecloth. “Sometimes, he seems so freaking unreasonable. And I just don’t understand why.” She tried to smile. “And sometimes, I feel like maybe it’s all me being way too uptight.”

  “Probably a little bit of both.” Trina touched her hand. “Planning a wedding during your senior year of college is a lot of responsibility.”

  “I know. We’re both stressed out. Maybe I should just take it easy for a little while, you know, not bother him so much and be a little more relaxed about certain issues.”

  “Issues like what?” Trina pried. Grey was known for asking far too much of Ivy for his own selfish aspirations.

  “Sex without a condom while I’m off birth control.”

  “Oh,” Trina smirked, wiping her mouth with the napkin. “I thought he asked for anal or something.”

  Ivy laughed. Leave it to Trina to think of the most out of control scenario. “No,” Ivy said, shaking her head. Suddenly, his request didn’t seem so bad compared to Trina’s guess.

  “But at least you can’t get pregnant through the backdoor.”

  “But I still wouldn’t,” Ivy interjected. “I would never. That is so…disgusting, dehumanizing…,” she said as a horrible afterthought shaking her head violently.

  “I know you wouldn’t,” Trina chuckled..

  “What is that suppose to mean?” Ivy put her sandwich down again.

  “Girl, please. You’ve got on a button down Oxford, sweater vest, slacks and loafers. You’ve got a Blackberry with a list of things to accomplish everyday. You’ve got a five-year plan, a ten-year plan and a back up plan for your entire professional career. Ever since Grey got hold of you, you’ve changed. You’ve become…him in a skirt.” Trina laughed.

  “I can be wild,” Ivy said, outraged in a high-pitched voice, as if to convince Trina. “It’s just that Grey always has somewhere he wants me to go with him and his family, and they are so politically correct. I just stay prepared. But I have jeans and t-shirts. And I don’t always carry my Blackberry.” She looked down into her Coach bag to see it at the top of the contents of her purse.

  “Well, I think that you’re perfect just the way you are, if this is who you really are,” Trina said, looking at Ivy’s sweater. “Because that outfit is still banging and probably more expensive than the equivalent of everything in my closet.” She smiled. “It’s just so…uptight.”

  “Well, I’m not uptight,” Ivy said reassuringly. “I pull this look off.”

  “Uh huh, I know.” Trina smiled. “In all the years that I’ve known you, you’ve always been true to yourself…even if it took you a while to figure out who you were.”

  “Well, I know who I am. I’m a woman in charge of her destiny. I’ve focused in on what I want, and I plan to go for it,” she said squinting her eyes. “And Grey is only a small part of that, just like this outfit is only a small part of me. If he left me today, I would still be the same person.”

  “I doubt that,” Trina said, bucking her eyes. “I mean, you’ve been sculpted into what he and your family wants for so long, that if that were to change, you would change dramatically.”

  “This is who I am, Trina.”

  “And I love you for it,” Trina said, realizing that she would never prove her point.

  For a minute, Ivy went into a reactive daze. In her mind, she was as happy as any young woman her age could be within reason. She had been dating Grey for five beautiful years and this last summer, he proposed over a candlelit dinner after three bottles of champagne. Everyone in both families knew that the proposal was coming soon. It was the next thing to do when a couple reached that level. Plus, she had a little more than one semester of college left and a job lined up and waiting for her. Her life was near perfection.

  *

  “Life couldn’t be worse,” Grey confessed, exhaling deeply as he sat back on his friend’s black leather couch and closed his eyes.

  “You know, I charge for these sessions,” Mattock said, sitting behind his desk. “Free consultations aren’t my forte.”

  “To hell with your forte. Besides, I don’t need a shrink. I need a pall bearer.” Grey shifted around and looked up at the ceiling.

  “Why? Are you about to die?” Mattock asked, biting down into a juicy green apple as he looked over the downtown Memphis skyline through his corner-office window.

  “Yeah, you didn’t know. My fiancée is planning my funeral now.” Grey sat up. “But she likes to call it a wedding,” he said in a mockingly feminine voice.

  “I don’t understand. If you didn’t want to get married, then why did you propose to her? It wasn’t like she was twisting your arm for it.” After being friends with Grey many years, Mattock still did not understand Grey’s need to lead such a promiscuous lifestyle.

  Grey pondered the thought. “It was time, according to my father’s standards and Ivy’s. My father thinks that we can’t win this election if I don’t have a more concrete image in the community. Plus, Ivy has always hinted at marriage after college. It was a perfect match. This election means an opportunity to go for it. All the local blogs, polls and political leaders say that Memphis needs a family man in my uncle’s position. Plus at first glance, I did want to get married. Our relationship was going great, both of us had promising futures, both of us had the same ambitions and to top it all off, she was all mine.”

  “W
ell, nothing has changed.” Mattock still did not understand.

  “You know Ivy was a virgin when I started dating her?” To Grey that was one of the highlights of their relationship. He had been the first, the only man that she had ever known.

  “You’ve mentioned it,” Mattock said. “But she was only a senior in high school. That’s pretty common. You were a junior in college. It’s a different league.”

  “I just remember seeing her with her family at one of my father’s dinners, and I fell head over heals for her. I had no idea how young she was.” Grey’s thoughts exhausted him, and he lay back down and gazed at the ceiling again. “Since the day we started dating, I knew that I would marry her. My family approved of her, my friends approved her, and Memphis will approve of us.”

  “So, why are you so torn about marrying this perfect woman, by your own standards?” Mattock waited patiently.

  “I don’t know. But I did know that if I let her get out there after college with no strings attached going to meetings, traveling, meeting new people and discovering new things, that I wouldn’t seem so fascinating and marriage to me wouldn’t be either.”

  “So let me get this straight, you asked her to marry you to keep her off the market and you in the race for Congress?” Mattock asked.

  “Basically.” Grey replied reluctantly. He sat up. “But as crude as it sounds it’s not unheard of, you know. I’m marrying for purpose.”

  “You don’t think that you could swing the seat without being married?” Mattock was always surprised by his best friend’s constant antics over love and lust.

  “Hey, I’m no expert. But the experts tell me that I can’t. So, if I have to marry, then I might as well marry Ivy.” Grey’s forehead wrinkled as he tried to make sense of it all. “Do you see where I’m going with this?”

  “Yes, I see where you’re headed, but the question is, do you? More important, you still haven’t answered one important question.” Mattock shook his head. Grey was amazingly confused to be such an intelligent man.

  “What question haven’t I answered?” Grey asked curious of his friend’s apparent infinite wisdom on the subject.

  “Do you love her?” Mattock sat down his apple and picked up his writing pad.

  “Yes, I love her, but I know what’s out there. I didn’t even start to think about cheating on her until I graduated from undergrad. Then it was like all of these successful beautiful women came out of the woodwork offering to do what ever I wanted.” He smiled proudly even in the midst his dilemma. “They couldn’t get enough of me.”

  “And you couldn’t get enough of them.” Mattock scribbled down something on his pad and reached for a small book on his table.

  “My point is that just like I was turned out before I could get my degree good, Ivy would’ve been if I hadn’t stepped in first.” Grey sighed heavily. Mattock was stressing him out further, instead of helping him.

  “So you asked her to marry you,” Mattock said astonished. “What can I say? You had it all figured out, except one part.”

  “What’s that?” Grey asked.

  “You’re not ready for marriage even if Ivy is ready. You’re still going to cheat on her and lie to her and misuse her. Only now you’ll be doing it in the sacred covenant of marriage. And eventually, Ivy is still going to be exposed and possibly turned out, as you call it. Plus, you could marry this girl and still loose the election, heaven forbid for Ivy’s sake. Nothing is promised.”

  “So what do you think that I should do, Doc?” Grey looked at his watch. It was time to head to city hall for his father’s press conference.

  Mattock set his book down. “Well, I think you should search your heart for some real answers before you ruin this girl’s life trying to have your cake and eat it too.”

  *

  Grey pondered his friend’s suggestions as he drove recklessly through the bad weather in his silver BMW Z4 M Roadster to get downtown to his father’s office. It never sounded good to have a friend tell him that it was apparent that he used the woman that would one day be the mother of his children. But in hindsight, it was the truth. Plus, Mattock’s point about possibly still loosing the election, hit him hardest. .

  Passing the long line of wrecks on the interstate, Grey drew his attention back to the weather. Something wasn’t right in Memphis. Something wasn’t right in the world. For as many years as he could remember, there had never been such severe weather. Normally, it wasn’t even cold yet. Now, fender benders lined the streets, because drivers weren’t used the roads being slick. The shelters were full of displaced veterans and other homeless; the government had to give emergency funds to clear out storm beaten communities, and his father had to be on top of his game to make Memphians feel safe. Juggling unpredictable situations was supposed to be the Henderson family’s strongest trait. Now, only time would tell.

  *

  “Looks like hell finally froze over, boys,” Mayor Henderson said as he walked briskly in front of his large entourage out to the iced-over front steps of City Hall where an eager group of reporters waited impatiently in the snow. As the doors swung open, his million-dollar smile appeared and his political face was on. Politicking was such fickle business, but he was consistent and unchangeable. They had labeled him Hard Ass Henderson, and he had stayed true to his name for eighteen years.

  Standing behind the podium in front of the masses and below the American and Tennessee flags, Mayor Henderson cleared his throat and began in a powerful baritone voice, “Thank you for coming this afternoon. Today is the new beginning of a new era for the citizens of Memphis. We have fought long and hard in this city for equality and justice. We have been victims of prejudice and hatred. But we have in the past and will continue in the future… to prevail. It is our conviction to achieve greatness not only as individuals but as a cohesive city, state and country, which will make us an awesome force.”

  Mayor Henderson took a deep breath and continued. “This cohesiveness will once again prove to be a weapon against unjust actions. I have not come before you today to celebrate a winning basketball team, a new architectural muse or even a new business venture. I have come before you today to announce that Memphis will once again be free from the strong hold of sadistic bloodsucking drug dealers and able to see a brighter day with a better purpose very soon.”

  Henderson’s gallant voice faded for a moment while he made sure to pose where the cameras would get his good side. “If it is the last thing that I do as your mayor, I have taken on the charge to rid Memphis of drug infestation with the sincerest of passion, and I will make it happen.” The crowd behind the reporters cheered briefly interrupting his speech and allowing a few good shots with the other major players present for the press conference.

  “Today, Director Billings, Major Hamilton, Lt. Agosto of the Special Units-Narcotics Division, Lt. Brooks of the COBRA SWAT Unit, and I concluded the last of eight meetings that have taken place over the last two weeks. The fruit of our labor will be evident in the new specialized unit that has already hit the streets of Memphis to fight head on the war on drugs. We have taken twenty-three of our finest narcotics and SWAT officers and combined them into one unit with the skill, expertise and Intel that will send a message nationwide. The Citizens of Memphis want drugs, drug dealers and drug abusers the hell out of Memphis. And so this is the final warning for those who mean to disrupt the lives of Memphis further with drugs. Twenty-three expertly trained officers of high rank specializing in everything from high-risk search and seizure to lie detection along with the entire Memphis Police Department at their beckoning call are ready with the backing of a $18.5 million budget allocated through tax payers, and the seizure of drug dealer’s undeserved wealth have equipped us in a manner that has never been seen in the city of Memphis. We are taking back our streets one house, one corner, and one person at a time through a citywide effort called Operation Check Book. The reason that this operation has been dubbed check book is because each drug dealer has written a c
heck in this city that has cost us our children, mothers, fathers, brothers, wives, best friends, teachers, preachers and leaders. And it’s time to cash in on what you owe us.”

  As Mayor Henderson ended his powerful speech, he felt an overwhelming calm in his heart. Yes, he had been politicking for a long time, but this was something different. This would bring real change. Turning around, he caught a glimpse of the pride in his son Grey who nodded approvingly.

  Standing behind his father, Grey smiled into the cameras as he listened to both Lieutenants and the director of the Memphis Police Department give praise to his father and his administration for their hard work and due diligence. This was just the kind of exposure his father needed in his fourth term. And this new unit would be just the vehicle to drive their family into a new arena of political monopoly, as he prepared for his own race in the approaching mid-term election.

  *

  It was almost ten thirty that night before Ivy was finished at the library with her report for class and her research for a client. Determined not to be out of the loop too much at the office, she volunteered to take on smaller projects from home. It was pride that made her push herself to new heights. Not the pride in herself, but the pride of having a wonderful job and a loving family. Her mother had always said to her “to whom much is given, much is expected.” So, it was obvious that her family expected a lot from her.

  Drudging through the ice and snow that had accumulated on the well-manicured lawn of her little campus, Ivy held on tightly to her black wool sailor coat and made her way anxiously to the dorms kicking herself with every stride for leaving her car parked inside the parking lot. It felt like hours of torture by the time she had finished her ten-minute hike and quickly entered into her dorm to shake off the excess snow and peal out of her clothes that seemed to be frozen to her body.